With
summer approaching, the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor announced, "New
Cooling Plant Now in Operation - 70 Degrees Cool Always." Newspaper
ads showed the Michigan name draped in ice and proclaimed that "waves
of gloriously fresh, delightfully cool air pour over you from our perfect
ventilating system."

Among
the films at the Michigan were Strangers
May Kiss, with Norma Shearer, who a few months earlier had won
the 1929/30 Oscar for best lead actress (for The
Divorcee). In the May 11 Ann Arbor Daily News, columnist
Allison Ind wrote, "Strangers May Kiss is a most simple story,
very modern, very vivacious and quite acceptably sexy." Also showing
at the Michigan this month were Trader
Horn and The
Front Page, both later nominated for the Best Picture Academy
Award for 1930/31.

The
Redford presented two other Best Picture nominees for 1930/31East
Lynneand Skippy.
Redford audiences checked the weather report before seeing such double
bills as New
Moon and Rain
or Shine (a circus drama directed by Frank Capra), or Lightning
Flyer and June
Moon. Mixed among the Detroit News movie ads on May 7,
1931 was this announcement: "Baseball Today at 3 p.m., Detroit vs.
Chicago, Box and Reserve Seats at Navin Field."

Also
at the Redford was Charlie Chaplin's silent City
Lights, whose limited popularity threatened the future of silent
films, wrote Detroit News columnist Harold Heffernan on May 17,
1931: "Two leading neighborhood theaters in Detroit played the Chaplin
picture recently and with all the advance publicity the comedy had during
its long downtown run it failed to make much of a stir." A News
article on May 24 about television heralded further changes: "The
problems encountered in television can be likened to those of the first
days of talkies and, therefore, no certainty exists as to the exact requirements
needed."